


A Few Pyramid Dares

by Estirose



Category: Kamen Rider Kiva
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-03
Updated: 2014-01-03
Packaged: 2018-01-07 06:11:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 2,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1116437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Estirose/pseuds/Estirose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Many years ago, I did a little bit of the Pyramid_Dares challenge on Livejournal. These fics were the result.</p><p>Mostly gen with one or two Wataru/Mio.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The first one is set pre-series.

Wataru looked over at the table where his mother was repairing a violin. She seemed so at peace when making them, and it was obvious that it was something she loved.

She was beginning to teach him the basics of making a violin. It was partly to make up for the loss of his friend Taiga-kun, she explained, for busy hands kept the brain busy as well. Plus, someday, he would have to do this on his own. Best he started young.

He didn't mind, though he doubted that he'd be as graceful with the wood as his mother was. "Our family learned violin making from Stradivarius," she told him once, and he knew now how important a name it was. He couldn't remember a time when he didn't play violin, he didn't remember when his mother had first put a violin in his hands, but the violin and its music was part of him.

Someday, he'd be old enough to play his father's violin, the violin that his father had made. His parents were both into the violin, and he couldn't be anything less. "You are us combined, Wataru," his mother had said. "Our hope, our precious son. You will carry on our legacies."

He wasn't sure what that meant. Yet. Maybe it had to do with making violins. It wouldn't surprise him.

In some ways, violin-making was peaceful, wonderful. The creation of something that made pleasant sounds. Wataru couldn't imagine doing anything else, it was peaceful here in their home, unlike the world outside, by his mother's words, so violent.

He wished he didn't have to go out, but he had school. And homework. And other things. But someday he'd be able to spend even more time here, among his peaceful home, in their clean world.

He looked forward to it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written between 30 and 31.

"Kurenai Wataru-kun."

Wataru turned slowly at that moment to face the speaker. "Nago-san."

The pretense, the hiding, the guarded dance he had been making around Nago-san was no longer needed. Nago-san knew what he was now.

Now Nago-san, who had planned to kill Kiva, was standing meters away from him, within easy striding distance.

Nago-san strode towards him, stepping over beams. "I should have guessed."

Why Nago-san should have guessed, Wataru didn't know. The man had asked him once, and he had told him that he was Kiva, but Nago-san didn't listen.

"She was right," Nago-san said. "Kiva has changed." He paused, looking at Wataru as if he'd never seen him before. "And Kiva can be redeemed."

"Nago-san?" Wataru asked uncertainly, not sure if he should summon Kivat back.

"You said you wanted to be my apprentice, once," Nago said. "Do you still want to be, or should I destroy Kiva?"

Nago-san's glare was intense. Wataru froze, not sure of the answer. But somehow the words tumbled out. "I've always been your apprentice, Nago-san."

"Good," Nago-san said. Wataru breathed a sigh of relief that he didn't have to battle Nago-san again. "Then come with me."

Wataru followed, but not without worry.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pre-series, Wataru and Taiga.

"Wataru!"

Wataru smiled as he saw Taiga coming towards him. His best friend - his only friend, even - ran towards him, waving.

Some people might have found it odd that Wataru and Taiga got along so well, given their personalities and their two-year age gap. But Wataru didn't even notice the difference. Here was a friend that his mother approved of, one that didn't laugh at him for being different.

"Wataru?" Taiga looked at him critically. "Did someone hurt you again?"

Wataru blushed. Yes, the bullies had gotten to him - two kids from his class - but he'd tried to hide it, because Taiga couldn't fight all his battles for him. However, Taiga was good at spotting these things, so he merely nodded.

"Humans are so stupid sometimes, Wataru," Taiga said. "Always wanting to hurt things and squander themselves."

"I'm amazed that you want to be friends with me," Wataru said. "The others say I'm too weird."

Taiga smiled. "You're not too weird to me," he said. "And what do the words of a few idiots mean anyway?"

Wataru wanted to say that they were right, but decided it would be safer to just agree with Taiga. He nodded.

"Wataru? You know you're better than them, right?" Taiga asked, putting a hand on Wataru's shoulder. "You are always going to be better than them, just because you are what you are."

"I... guess so," Wataru said, not understanding what Taiga meant. He smiled. "Want to race, Taiga?"

Taiga grinned. "Of course. I always win."

The two boys took off, running.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little bit of Wataru/Mio.

Wataru had once been told that courtship, romance, was a dance. He didn't have any evidence of this himself, as his mother had not felt it important that he date. He had only rumors, clues, vague ideas of how one was supposed to be in love.

He and Mio-san were engaged in a unplanned, awkward dance. He stepped forward, and sometimes she stepped forward too. Or sometimes she ran away. Sometimes they were in rhythm; sometimes he felt like he'd stepped on her foot.

Megumi-san was full of advice on how to date, how to dance, but Megumi-san was Megumi-san and she wasn't as incredibly awkward as the two of them were. He and Mio-san were so much alike, so much awkward, and there were so many things that could go wrong. His mother had been more interested in teaching him to appreciate the arts that she'd forgotten to teach him about girls. He wondered if she'd ever thought he'd get married; maybe she thought it wasn't a big thing.

So Wataru had to step blindly, hope Mio-san didn't run away again, protect Mio-san as she deserved protection, become the man she needed him to be, or that he'd read that he should be.

Love was so confusing. He didn't understand it, at least romantic love. But for Mio-san he would try. And he'd learn how to dance right for her.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is an AU of how Wataru met Shizuka.

Wataru was silent as he contemplated the bushes before him. His mother had suggested he get out of the house for a little bit, and he had thought of making her proud by making his own violin varnish. His glasses, mask, and cap protected him from the air that might harm him.

"Hi! What are you doing?" The young voice made him spin around, and he had to catch his balance.

The girl was a few years younger than he was, maybe ten to his fifteen. "I'm... I'm... I'm making violin varnish."

"By poking around in bushes?" the girl asked, peering into the bush to look. "I thought that varnish was sold directly."

"Well, for tables, yes," Wataru said, correcting her assumption just as his mother had corrected a customer's. "Violin varnish is different. Mom likes to make her own, and I thought I'd help out."

"Oh," the girl said, hand on chin. "Hi, I'm Nomura Shizuka. I live down the way." She said it as if he should know who she was, or who the family was.

"Kurenai Wataru. I live... well, in the big house down the street." He was aware that the people that lived around their place were superstitious.

"Oh! You're the ghost boy!" She peered at him again. "Is that why you wear that mask?"

"No, I wear the mask because mom says the outside world is making me sick," he said. He wasn't sure why he'd suddenly become sick to the world, it hadn't hurt him earlier, but his mother knew best. "Inside the air is filtered and I'm okay."

"Oh," Nomura-san said, still peering at him. "Do you get out much?"

Wataru shook his head. "It's not healthy for me. And besides that, mom and Ki... well, I have enough company at home. Mom home tutors me anyway, she says I'm too special to go to school."

"That's not healthy," Nomura-san said. "Your mom should know better. What if you have to go someplace to work someday?"

"Mom says there's nothing more important than the family business," Wataru said, trying to defend his mother. "That's why I mostly stay at home. Mom says the world's corrupted anyway, so I shouldn't try to learn it."

"That's stupid," Nomura-san said emphatically. "I think you should learn about the world around you. Do you even know much about our country's history? Or customs, or...."

"Mom says that's not important," Wataru said quickly.

"Well, duh, yes they are," Nomura-san said. "Look, everybody should know these things. Normal people don't stick their heads in bushes to look for violin varnishes."

"I guess not," Wataru agreed.

"So," Nomura-san said, "I'm gonna teach you about the world around you. Got it?"

"Um, okay," Wataru said, wondering if his mom would disagree about him seeing a girl about how things were in the world. "Thank you, Nomura-san."

"Call me Shizuka." She paused. "Chan. You do know honorifics, right?"

Wataru nodded. "Yes. My mom taught me manners."

"Good. I'll meet you next week, same place. Be here!"

With that, she took off, and Wataru stared after her for a minute or two before returning to his ingredient search.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wataru's ignorant about a lot of things.

"What do you mean, you've never been to karaoke?" Megumi-san asked, looking at him like he'd grown a second head.

"Well," he said, setting down his coffee, "I just never did." His mother had discouraged him from human contact, saying that he was too important to worry about such silly and mundane things. Plus, she didn't consider karaoke to be art. Or probably wouldn't have. Wataru had never seen the point either.

His mother had loved the fine arts and music. "That's why," she had said, "I fell in love with your father. He didn't blindly follow things, but he wasn't radical, either."

Just very brave, apparently, though Kurenai Otoya had apparently also been a flirt and a tease. Wataru had to wonder how his mother had managed to get his father to settle down - or maybe it was a moot point after he died. His mother had never mentioned it, so maybe it hadn't been important to her.

His mother had left him ignorant of a lot of things that didn't involve art or violins. He'd been amazed that he'd gotten through his life without formal education, his mother blocking any attempt to put him in school.

So he didn't have many friends, and he was ignorant of a lot of things, including karaoke. He understood the principle, but why anybody would do it was beyond him.

But he couldn't say no to Megumi-san, and he wanted to understand more, so he went to karaoke. And he watched. But it still didn't make sense to him, like so many other things didn't.

Maybe there was some reason that his mother had left him so ignorant, but he had to confess that he didn't regret missing some things. Didn't regret not knowing some things. Someday he would understand her reasoning, but in the meantime, he would experiment and he would experience, and maybe he'd understand things a bit better.


	7. Chapter 7

If he'd been like most people, Wataru would have considered time travel to be a fantastic, almost impossible thing. But when Nago-san told him about his trip through time, Wataru hadn't blinked. After all, the Fangire were pretty supernatural, and they existed, as did Kivat.

He'd been surprised to learn that not everybody had Kivat partners. He'd asked his mother about that once, and she'd said that it was because he was a very, very special boy. And Castle Dran, which was somehow part of his inheritance too, could do some special things. He remembered when he'd fought with Den-O and Zeronos, when he and Castle Dran had gone into the land that existed within time itself.

What was normal to him was apparently not nornal to everybody else. His mother had kept him away from others, telling him that to do what he was destined to do, he had to be seperate, not involved. He hadn't questioned it then, but was questioning it now.

Why had he been brought up the way he was? What was he meant to be? He wasn't sure. Only his mother would know, and she was gone.

Someday, he would find out what was meant for him. Someday he would understand his destiny. And someday, he would know why he himself was special.


	8. Chapter 8

If there was something that Wataru enjoyed having at his house, it was a balcony. Not that he used it during the day, of course, but at night he enjoyed standing out there in the dark, with only the moonlight to keep him company.

Someday, maybe, he hoped to share that moonlight with somebody else. Maybe a wife, or a lover. He was the ghost boy of the neighborhood anyway, he doubted anything would happen if he shared his balcony with someone else.

Sometimes he played violin there, sometimes he just stood and watched the empty streets, content that nobody was coming to complain about things. It was so quiet and so peaceful. So much the world that his mother had shown him.

His mother had liked the dark, liked the moon. Loved the moon, actually. There were so many times when he'd been growing up that they'd spend time out there together, talking about everything and everything. He sometimes had the sense that his mother loved the night more than the day. They could talk until his bedtime in peace, mostly uninterrupted by other people.

But now she was gone, and he was alone, and he still went out to the balcony. It reminded him of his mother, of her love. He wanted to share that with somebody, someday. Maybe he'd get lucky. Maybe he'd fall in love. And maybe he'd fall in love with someone who enjoyed the night, too.

In the meantime, on his balcony in the night, he softly played his violin.


	9. Chapter 9

Kurenai Wataru, like many others his age, had a cell phone that Shizuka-chan had convinced him to buy. He didn't feel the need for a cellphone himself, but Shizuka-chan had insisted on it. That had been the day after she'd found him in the middle of a bush, extracting bugs with the help of some tweezers, as the sun was going down. He had to admit he was a little bit absentminded at times, and he'd been properly embarassed when Shizuka-chan had found him and lectured him and told him he'd had to get one.

Only a few people had his phone number, but then again, he knew so few people. Shizuka-chan had it, as did Megumi-san, Mio-san, and Kengo-san. That was about it. He didn't see the use of it otherwise. Megumi-san had demanded it from him, Shizuka had of course gotten the number when he'd bought the phone, he'd given it to Mio-san, and somehow he'd ended up giving it to Kengo-san.

And then they called him. Well, not Mio-san. Mio-san was like him; she had one because she'd been told to buy one. But Shizuka called him to make sure he was all right. Megumi-san called him to talk to him - well, there was that one possible date, too - and Kengo-san loved to chat for hours. And Megumi-san and Kengo-san he'd only known for a few months, amazingly enough.

It was a strange thing, being in the company of other people, of other people wanting to know him and talk to him and wanting to spend time with him. In his childhood, he'd had his mother and Taiga; his mother had discouraged him from spending too much time with other people, really, though she'd approved of Taiga. He'd met Shizuka-chan after his mother had disappeared, and she'd taken charge of him. But she was enough for him. To him, the world around him was strange, and the people in it stranger. She'd told him his destiny was beyond any other person's, and he had to prepare for that instead of spending time talking to others.

But he was learning that maybe he was stronger for knowing Shizuka-chan and Mio-san. Better for knowing Megumi-san and Kengo-san. He didn't know why his mother had held him seperate from other people, but he was remedying it in his own way.


End file.
